First Impressions: Presidents, Appointments, and the Transition Stephen Hess The Brookings Institution September 18, 2000 2 The Presidential Appointee Initiative First Impressions: Presidents, Appointments, and the Transition A curious product of our presidential system is Thus the initial success and lingering impression that while the electorate casts its vote for only of each presidency will be largely determined by two individuals, it in effect chooses hundreds of the selection of about 30 people picked in haste individuals to govern. The president-elect must during the brief period between election and quickly build an administration of private citizens inauguration. These include the secretaries of the that reflects his or her vision. This act of admin- 14 executive departments: State, Treasury, Defense, istration-building has been called “a uniquely Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, American enterprise.” In most democracies the Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban pieces of the incoming government are already Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, in place, as members of a shadow cabinet take and Veterans Affairs. their places alongside the new leader. It is the very “formlessness” in the United States, says the Congressional acts award Cabinet rank to the New York Times, that makes “a president-elect’s U.S. trade representative and the “drug czar.” task at once exciting and daunting.”1 The president fills out the rest of his Cabinet as he sees fit. For instance, President Clinton’s For those on the inside, noted Martin Anderson, second-term team includes the administrator of who has been there twice, it is a time of “deli- the Environmental Protection Agency, director cious chaos.”2 For those on the outside, bank- of the Office of Management and Budget, able information is hard to come by. “Those director of the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. who know aren’t talking,” said insider Edwin representative to the United Nations, administra- Meese during the 1980 transition, “and those who tor of the Small Business Administration, director are talking don’t know.”3 It is a complicated of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, business, largely conducted behind closed doors. chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the White House chief of staff. Notable also are For the national press corps, the journalists who other top members of the White House staff, shape our collective judgment of what kind of such as the national security adviser, the White president we are about to get, covering the tran- House counsel, press secretary, and the primary sition mainly boils down to a simple story about economic and domestic policy aides. In assess- people. Who’s in? Who’s out? And who are the ing the ability of a president to get off to a fast ins? Why were they chosen? Who do they rep- and favorable start, these are the appointees who resent? Are they competent? Controversial? And put a face on the administration. why did it take so long to assemble the presi- dent’s White House team and Cabinet? 1 “Building an Administration,” New York Times, December 14, 1975. 2 Martin Anderson, Revolution: The Reagan Legacy (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1990), p. 196. 3 Edwin Meese III, With Reagan: The Inside Story (Washington: Regnery Gateway, 1992), p. 63. The Presidential Appointee Initiative 3 Paradoxically these high-profile appointments are In analyzing the transition periods of the last five the easiest a president will ever make. Most of presidents, eight essential lessons can be drawn. the men and women chosen are personally known They are: to him. Some are among his closest friends. Some have just finished running his campaign. # BE PREPARED. Pre-election transition planning All have reputations that are easy to check out. is essential. Moreover, the historical record (as opposed to the # ACT QUICKLY. Have your key White House anecdotal record) shows that the president is given staff in place by Thanksgiving and your considerable latitude by the public, the press, Cabinet secretaries announced by Christmas. and even the Senate. Yet personnel mistakes, # PUT THE WHITE HOUSE FIRST. Choose sometimes serious errors, have plagued chief your White House team before selecting executives even before they actually take office. your Cabinet. # THINK CLUSTERS. Choose appointees as This essay first summarizes the experiences in a team. this regard of the five most recent first-term tran- # SEND A MESSAGE. The appointments you sitions: Richard Nixon (1968-69), Jimmy Carter make send a message about the administra- (1976-77), Ronald Reagan (1980-81), George tion’s priorities. Bush (1988-89), and Bill Clinton (1992-93). The # CHOOSE YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC GOALS. mistakes and accomplishments of previous presi- Think about what you want your administra- dents give incoming administrations a roadmap tion to look like. to complete successful transitions. Lessons can # FEED THE BEAST. Give the press corps some- be drawn from prior events. These lessons thing to cover. should be heeded early in the transition if presi- # SMILE AND GROVEL. Handle senators with dents want to avoid the accusation of drifting care. They are the ones who must confirm and maintain control over their own messages. your picks. 4 The Presidential Appointee Initiative Richard Nixon Elected November 5, 1968 Richard Nixon’s transition exemplified the impor- underemployed press corps. Nixon set up head- tance of choosing the White House staff before quarters in the elegant Hotel Pierre, a block the Cabinet. Sequencing of appointments is a south of his Fifth Avenue apartment. matter of considerable relevance in transitions.4 The order in which presidents-elect choose their The president-elect’s first substantive appoint- advisers has both symbolic and practical signifi- ment (after the gracious gesture of appointing his cance. The sequence that Nixon followed longtime personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods) reflected the attention that he was giving to was Bryce Harlow to be chief White House assis- organizing his White House staff and the impor- tant for congressional affairs. The Harlow tance of finding ways to reach out to the opposi- appointment indicated Nixon’s willingness to tion party. reach out to Democrats. A New York Times head- line declared, HARLOW IS LIKED BY BOTH Of the 25 presidential elections of the 20th cen- PARTIES. The article concluded, “He brings to tury, only four have been close and Nixon was his job a quality few men have achieved even involved in half of those, losing to John Kennedy after years of effort—he has the confidence of in 1960 and defeating Vice President Hubert both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.”5 Humphrey eight years later. Now facing the This initial turn to Harlow also demonstrated president-elect were the challenges of finding a Nixon’s willingness to give the White House pre- way to conclude a divisive war in Vietnam and eminence over the Cabinet, despite his previous of building bridges to an opposition Congress. belief that the White House staff should be sub- Indeed, Nixon was the first president in 120 servient to the Cabinet. years to enter office without his party controlling at least one chamber of the Congress. Some of Nixon’s earliest efforts were directed at finding “name” Democrats who might serve in his Every first-term transition is conducted in two administration. He asked Humphrey to be the cities, Washington and the winning candidate’s U.S. representative to the United Nations and home city. Nixon’s home was in New York. He was turned down. He asked Senator Henry moved there after losing the California guberna- Jackson of Washington to be secretary of Defense torial election in 1962. And New York was the and was turned down. Finally he considered ideal city for transition purposes, close enough to offering the U.N. post to Sargent Shriver, the capital for the convenience of commuting President Kennedy’s brother-in-law, who was politicians and big enough (unlike Plains, then ambassador to France. As Nixon tells the Georgia or Little Rock, Arkansas) to divert an story in his memoirs: 4 See Appendix A: Sequence of Presidential Appointments. 5 Felix Belair Jr., “Harlow is Liked by Both Parties,” New York Times, November 14, 1968. The Presidential Appointee Initiative 5 Shriver expressed great interest and sent me Herbert Klein, a California newspaper editor, a message stating the conditions for his who had served him loyally in four campaigns. acceptance. Among other things he required Klein expected to be press secretary. Nixon a pledge that the federal poverty programs thought he was too independent. He decided to would not be cut. It was intolerable to have downgrade the press job and give it to 29-year- a prospective ambassadorial appointee mak- old Ronald Ziegler, a Haldeman protégé. But ing demands relating to domestic policy, so I where did this leave Klein? Klein decided “I told Bill Rogers [Nixon’s choice for secretary could best bring the indecision on my role to a of State] to inform Shriver that I had decided head either way by making my own power play against him and to let him know why. on television.” Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation, Rogers reported that Shriver realized that he Klein said he would like to “have a role with had overstepped himself and had tried to him [Nixon] if it were structured right. Otherwise, backpedal, claiming that he had not meant I would have to go back into private enterprise.” his message to set forth conditions but to The “structure” then agreed upon was a new make suggestions. I told Rogers to say that entity called the White House Office of my decision remained unchanged.6 Communications, directed by Klein, which would be given government-wide responsibility for The day after the Harlow announcement, Nixon coordinating media relations.8 Any revised gov- announced that H.R.